Backyard Boon

The Wife has decided it is time to upgrade our backyard. In the earlier entry "water feature" I claimed territory rights for anything outside the house. You know now know this is my futile attempt to gain some authority at home. When she decides, it is decided. I sulks and use a sneaky approach. "Go ahead and do it by yourself. Count me out." I says. She went ahead and dig out the old tiles and rearrange them. Then she does her research in the internet. She has her way with me. "I need to go the stone place." she says. Guess what! We go to the stone place on the weekend. We go to the garden place after she pronounce she has found the stone.

We went to Jalan Kayu Stone, Thomson Road Nurseries(the place that floods), Bah Soon Pah Road(heard of this place?) and she decides made a phone call to her contact for granite supplier. Yes, they have the granite 25mm thick and best part? It is 30% cheaper than Far East Flora's granite or our current concrete tiles. She do up all the measurements and map out our backyard on the spreadsheet. She then calculate the number of pieces of 1 X 1 ft square or 30 centremetres she will need. She have the pieces at the edge of the backyard cut to the right size to fit. The granite tiles arrived last Thursday. We bought sand, subsoil lining, levelling tool and a 5 pound mallet yesterday morning. In the afternoon she and our maid dug out the mud from some area to improve drainage. Then they pour in the granite chips. After that I help to lay out the subsoil lining and we pour in coarse sand. The maid level the coarse sands and then we add a layer of fine sand. She will level the fine sand and make sure the height is just right for the granite when laid will be level with edge of our house.

I helped by pounding the granite tile with the mallet to the tiles are flat. The pounding also compact the sand and make the sand substrate stable. This way the tiles will not wobbles when we walk on them. It is quite easy to get the hang of it. So we have a rhythm. The backyard is done this evening. We spend a total of not more than 8 hours. She stand there quietly for more than an hour. She must be admiring her handiwork.

The sense of accomplishment must be awesome.